Pretending
by iluvwillschuester
Summary: They needed to stop skirting around the elephant in the room. The fact that Carl, Terri, Ken, and Holly were now out of the picture but Will and Emma were still just friends. The two needed to stop pretending. Pretending that everything was okay. Pretending that they didn't have feelings for eachother. Pretending that there was never anything between them.


Pretending

_**Author's Note- Hey everybody! This one-shot is dedicated to WrittenInCrayon; merry Christmas! This takes place during 'New York,' when Will comes back from New York. I know that this has been done before many times, but this is my take on what happened. Here's the story, enjoy! ;)**_

_They needed to stop skirting around the elephant in the room. The fact that Carl, Terri, Ken, and Holly were now out of the picture but Will and Emma were still just friends. The two needed to stop pretending. Pretending that everything was okay. Pretending that they didn't have feelings for each other. Pretending that there was never anything between them._

Emma watched from her office window as the New Directions walked through the hallway for the first time since they came in twelfth at Nationals. Their bus had just arrived a few minutes ago and Emma was sad, sadder than she had ever felt in her life. It was the saddest kind of sad, the kind where you had to be happy for someone even if it was killing you inside. She now knew how Will felt when she had married Carl; how he had offered a weak smile coated in sadness and claimed he was happy for her. Emma watched as Puck danced through the hallway, flexing his muscles and laughing. This made her smile a little. It was nice to see that one of the students didn't want to kill Rachel or Finn. The rest of the students followed, and Emma sighed when she didn't see Will. She knew he wasn't coming but a small part of her hoped that she would have come back for her. Emma turned and looked out the window, seeing the yellow bus. That stupid yellow bus had always meant good bye for them. At their very first Sectionals, Will had to stay behind and Emma had to take the kids. Emma smiled at that memory; it was in this very hallway that they had shared their first kiss. Then, at their second Sectionals, Emma had come to say good bye to Will. Only this good bye had meant so much more than the others. This was a real good bye, a forever good bye. It was in this good bye that Emma knew she was saying bye to their history and moving on with Carl. She hated that she did that. She hated that she had broken Will's heart by marrying Carl. Thinking of all of this, thinking of Will made Emma's head hurt. She had lost him, she had really lost him. Emma held her head in her hands and began softly sobbing. A few minutes later, there was a knock at her door. Emma's head snapped up, hoping that it would be Will.

"Want to come join us, Ms. P?" Puck asked, smiling. Either he saw that she was crying and decided to ignore it or didn't want to ask why because he knew the answer.

"Huh?" Emma replied, wiping her eyes and hoping her mascara wasn't running.

"Would you like to come and celebrate with us? We came in twelfth place, you know. Well, you do know; you made that awesome banner," Puck smiled.

"I'm, I'm not sure if I should," Emma said. "Work to do and, and, cleaning, yeah cleaning," Emma stammered.

"Mr. Schue would want you to," Puck challenged, raising an eyebrow.

Emma felt her eyes grow wet at the mention of Will's name. It was true though, he would want her to go. Will wouldn't want to stop her from being happy. Emma bit her lip to hold back more tears. "Crap, you're crying! I'm not good with crying girls," Puck exclaimed, walking behind the guidance counselor's desk. "Is it because of Mr. Schue?" Puck questioned.

"I, um, you, I shouldn't, Noah," Emma muttered, feeling the urge to clean something.

"It's okay, I get it. He was really something…to all of us. I know he loves you, we all know. That guy would do anything for you, anything. So, come on, come to the party with us. It's the last glee rehearsal of the year and we all want you there," Puck explained, offering his hand.

"Thank you, Noah," Emma whispered. She glanced at his hand, only God knows where it had been but reluctantly, she took it. He squeezed her hand reassuringly as they stepped out into the hallway. Rachel opened the door for the two of them and smiled.

"Guys! Ms. P is here!" Rachel exclaimed, giving Emma a hug. "How was McKinley while we were gone?"

"Lonely," Emma replied, truthfully. It was definitely going to be a lonely future without Will in her life.

After a few minutes of the kids chatting with Emma, everyone went back to celebrating and singing. Emma walked over to Finn and told him that she was going to head to the bathroom. Once she got to the bathroom, she stared at herself in the mirror; willing herself to be stronger. Emma gave herself a pep talk in her head before going back to the choir room. When she was a few feet from the door, Emma could tell something was going on. There was a big commotion. Emma pushed it aside, thinking that Puck was just seeing how many Cokes he could chug, well; at least she hoped it was Cokes. A small part of Emma was thinking that the commotion had to do with Will coming back. Emma walked into the room just as the crowd was dispersing and there was still no sign of Will. Emma felt someone tap her on the back and she turned around, expecting to see Kurt or Mercedes.

"Will!" Emma exclaimed, shocked. Will smiled and wondered if it was okay to give her a hug.

"Hi," he said, wrapping his arms around her. Emma smiled into his shoulder, melting under his embrace.

"What-what are you, I, uh, Broadway?" Emma stammered, after they mutually pulled away.

"Can we talk in my office, Em? I'll explain everything," Will offered, smiling.

"Okay," Emma agreed, following him out the door. The walked down to Will's office which was just across the hall and Will opened the door.

"You can sit down if you want," Will suggested, as Emma took a seat in a student's chair. "I have a lot to tell you."

"Can I ask a question?" Emma said, and Will nodded. "Why are you here, Will? Why aren't you on Broadway? That was your dream."

"That used to be my dream," Will replied, gazing at Emma.

"No, stop being silly. You love singing and dancing and you're so, so talented, Will, so talented. You should be in New York right now with April. You've always wanted this, you –you deserve this," Emma explained.

"I-I realized that there are bigger and better things than Broadway…a lot better things. Broadway was my old dream, now I have a new one. I left New York because that's not my home, Ohio is," Will said, calmly.

"Will, there's nothing here for you in Ohio," Emma stated, hoping that there someday would be a future for the two of them in Ohio. A flicker of pain flashed through Will's hazel eyes at Emma's words.

"Em, please stop," Will started, longing filling his eyes. "We have to really talk."

"We are talking," Emma muttered, her eyes growing wide.

"I mean, we have to stop pretending. Really."

"I'm not sure I understand," Emma mumbled, knowing exactly what he was saying.

Will ran a hand through his curls, frustrated. "You know what I mean, Emma. We have to stop pretending that there was never anything between us. Carl, Terri…everyone's gone. Nothing's standing in between us now and I-I left New York for you, you're my dream, not Broadway."

Emma looked like a deer in headlights; she couldn't believe this was happening. Will Schuester was in front of her practically begging her to love him and she couldn't say anything. "I don't want to get in the way of what you really should be doing, Will. Go back to New York," Emma said, softly. As soon as the words came out of her mouth, Emma was shocked herself.

"I-I," Will mumbled. "I don't get it. Em, you can stop pretending now. There's, we need to stop leaving things unsaid…it's not helping us." There was clear desperation in Will's voice.

Emma just gave him a blank look. She was unsure of what to say. There was Will, who she had thought was leaving her forever, saying that they needed to stop pretending. She knew he was right, but Emma was afraid of losing him again.

"I don't want to lose you again, Em, I never want to lose you," Will admitted. Emma smiled and opened her mouth to talk. "Emma, I love you…do you think you might want to love me too?"

Emma smiled and nodded quickly. "I love you, Will, I love you," Emma exclaimed, throwing her arms around him. Will looked down at her, smiling with adoring eyes.

"Can I kiss you?" he asked, tilting his head.

"Of course," Emma whispered. She stood on her tip-toes and he captured her lips with a sweet kiss.

"I've waited so long to do that," Will confessed, once they pulled away.

"Me too and I'm sorry for everything," Emma admitted.

"Shh, don't be. We all made mistakes, but now we get to start over," Will assured her. "So…you are my girlfriend now, right?"

Emma laughed at his innocence and nodded. "Always," she whispered.

Will was wearing that dopey grin that Emma loved. "We should probably get back to the choir room."

"Yeah," Emma agreed. As they walked out the door, Will slipped his hand into hers. Emma looked down at their intertwined hands and smiled. "Will?"

"Yeah?" he replied, looking at her.

"I'm really glad you came back," Emma said, squeezing his hand.

"Me too."

_**So what did you think? Good or bad? Boring or interesting? I hope you all liked it. I got the title idea from the song Finn and Rachel sang in that episode, actually. The 'do you think you might want to love me too?' was taken from the movie 'Little Manhattan' that I just saw again. Once again, merry Christmas WrittenInCrayon and I hope that all of you have a great holiday. Please drop a review, I love hearing from you guys! ;)**_


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